Such micromechanical sensors are generally known. For example, micromechanical sensors are used to detect accelerations and/or rotation rates, the micromechanical sensor including a substrate and silicon structures movable relative to the substrate.
For example, the movable silicon structures include two movable masses which are moved along a drive plane antiparallel to each other, a deflection movement of the two masses out of the drive plane being capacitively detected in order to determine a rotation rate of the micromechanical sensor. The drive plane may be oriented essentially in parallel or perpendicularly to the main extension plane of the substrate.
Such movable silicon structures are typically manufactured in two consecutive steps, the silicon structures initially being created in an etching process by structuring a functional layer. Subsequently the silicon structures are exposed, a sacrificial layer between the substrate and the silicon structures being removed.
The disadvantage with the known micromechanical sensors is that the flanks of the silicon structures (also referred to as etching flanks or trench flanks) created during the structuring of the functional layer are frequently inclined by an angle (also referred to as etching angle or trench angle) with respect to a normal direction which is essentially perpendicular to the main extension plane of the substrate, so that in this way a deviating movement (faulty deflection) of the two movable masses is induced. The faulty deflection also occurs when the micromechanical sensor is in a rest position, so that a wobbling motion of the two seismic masses is caused, an error signal (i.e., a so-called quadrature signal) being generated. A quadrature compensation may typically only be reduced by comparatively complex additional measures.